Freedom's Last Gasp Page 7

  Priya raised her hand. “Does anyone live out here, in the unmonitored areas?”

  “Sure. There are people whose only job is to maintain the equipment that automates our harvest. There are also a few of those who prefer a more remote life. But they’re all wearing these.” The woman raised her hand and pointed at her bracelet.

  Priya was wearing an ID band too. They all were. They’d been snapped on as they boarded the bus. Priya hated being tracked, but she wasn’t going to be allowed to board without it.

  The guy sitting next to her leaned over and whispered. “There are supposed to be some outlaws out here, too, people who aren’t monitored at all. No ID, no access to civilization. It’s like the Wild West from the 1800s. Or at least that’s what my uncle used to say.”

  “What happens if you get into trouble out here, and you don’t have a bracelet?” Priya asked.

  “Then you’re out of luck, I guess. But some people don’t care. My uncle’s family was from New Hampshire, and they were all about the old motto of ‘Live Free or Die.’ Myself, I can’t imagine living out here with wild animals and dirt and outlaws looking to rob me.”

  “Okay, folks, if that’s all the questions for now, I’m going to play you an audiotape that we recovered from the mine we’re about to visit. It’s over two hundred years old. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

  Some music began playing and then a man’s voice broadcast through the speakers.

  “We are the largest privately owned coal company in the United States and the largest underground coal mining company in the world. We are Murray Energy Corporation, and we produce over seventy-six million tons of coal annually. This is high-quality bituminous coal produced through the efforts of nearly seven thousand people…”

  Priya tuned the voice out and watched the land race past. Everything was so different out here. No stores, no libraries, no schools. No jobs, for that matter. It really would be like living in the early Americas, doing whatever you had to do to scratch out an existence. The idea both intrigued and frightened her.

  At least her trip out here was just for one day, she thought. Chrysalis would probably be just as strange, just as foreign, and she would have to stay there for six months.

  That is, if she could survive that long.

  She knew that others had been sent to spy on Chrysalis and never came back, and that thought loomed like a sword of Damocles over her head. How could anyone expect her trip to have a different outcome? Odds were, she was going to die up there.

  She pulled in a deep breath and wished things were different, that she had never ended up in this impossible situation.

  And suddenly, she smiled. “There is something I can do.”

  “Huh?” said the guy next to her.

  “Nothing.” She waved dismissively.

  Priya turned to the window. She couldn’t wait for this day to be over. Because tomorrow she’d break all the rules.

  “One passenger for the Bizarre Bazaar at Times Square. Please be aware that this is a premium location and will require the Transit Service to debit three credits from your account each way. Please confirm.”

  Priya rolled her eyes. “Confirmed.”

  The sound of rushing air grew louder behind the metal doors to the tube. “Establishing vacuum. Queuing request for transportation link between Coral Springs-North Junction and the main terminal at the Bizarre Bazaar-Times Square.”

  Priya paced back and forth excitedly. Today was her last day on Earth, for now at least, and for all she knew, forever. Which meant she was going to blow an obscene amount of credits. After all, credits wouldn’t do her any good when she was dead.

  “Link complete. The car is arriving in three… two… one…”

  The doors slid open, and Priya entered the single-seat capsule, preparing herself for the twenty-minute ride to the only place she knew of where she’d be able to get what she wanted.

  “We are about to depart.”

  Priya smiled and gripped the armrests as the capsule accelerated.

  The heavenly scent was hard for Priya to describe. It reminded her of a campfire, but somehow it seemed more pungent, more primal.

  She’d read about real meat, but she’d never before found a place that actually served it—and now that a fresh-grilled patty of ground beef sat before her, she knew that the books had failed to do it justice. The smell alone was exquisite, and her mouth was watering.

  The waitress hovered. “Do you have any questions?”

  Priya wasn’t used to having an actual person take her order, deliver it, and be there to respond to questions. “Well… I guess… what’s the best way to eat this?”

  Priya had spent more on this two-ounce “slider” than she’d normally spend for a week’s worth of groceries. The last thing she wanted was to screw this experience up.

  The waitress pulled out a laser pointer and aimed a red dot at the meat, the miniature buns, and the vegetables. “Many of our customers enjoy eating the meat alone, to savor what’s illegal outside the bazaar. But it’s supposed to be a sandwich. The history books are pretty clear about what people used to put on it. The meat of course, tomato, lettuce, sometimes a pickle, and maybe a little bit of ketchup or mayonnaise or both.”

  Priya decided the waitress was right: she wanted to try the meat alone. She sliced a tiny piece of meat from the patty, feeling silly that she was so excited over something as basic as food, and popped it into her mouth.

  It was delicious—so unlike the manufactured and processed ingredients she’d grown up on. The savory juiciness of the meat, combined with a mild taste of char… She let out an embarrassing moan.

  The waitress grinned. “Good, yeah? If you need anything else, just wave and I’ll be right over.”

  Priya wanted to duplicate that first bite, but she decided she’d better try it the traditional way. The meat sandwich.

  She assembled the ingredients as the waitress had instructed, including the ketchup and mayonnaise, and took a sample bite.

  She moaned again. She’d never forget this gustatorial experience. She savored it, chewing each bite slowly, appreciating every moment, but it was gone too soon.

  She took another look at the digital menu. She’d blown through most of her credits already today, but she had enough left to order maybe one more thing. There was no point in saving her money—tomorrow before dawn she’d be going to Cape Canaveral for a trip she might never return from.

  She waved at the waitress, who came over immediately. “How was the slider?”

  Priya made a sound between a moan and a grunt.

  The waitress laughed. “That was pretty much my reaction the first time I had one. Is there anything else you’d like?”

  “Can you tell me more about the cheesecake? What’s that like?”

  “Oh, child, where do I start?”

  “You’re sure this signal came from alien tech?” Terry asked. He was standing beside Nwaynna at an alien console that showed several recently received signals. The signal of interest had triggered an alert just fifteen minutes ago.

  She swiped through several different complex charts that apparently meant something to her, though they meant nothing to him. “Without a doubt. The frequency is several orders of magnitude beyond anything we could produce, and of course Earth scientists are generations behind us in tech. If not for our alien signal sniffers, we wouldn’t have picked it up at all.”

  “Can you decode the message?”

  “Afraid not. It was transmitted using an auto-scrambler. It’s not that hard. All anyone would have to do is seed the random frequency hopper with a unique seed and they’d be able to get a private signal through without us knowing what they’re saying.”

  “How about source and destination?”

  She smiled. “There I have better news. Our alien receivers have pretty good spread spectrum analyzers. They have their limits, but I manage to get enough captured frequencies to triangulate, and…”

  The scientis
t swiped once more, and an image of their solar system appeared. Tau Ceti was at its center, with Earth as the farthest orbiting planet. Epsilon was closer in, being orbited by Chrysalis. An animated graphic showed a signal originating from Earth and traveling across space to the mining colony.

  “The signal was sent from the southeastern part of North America on Earth. I can’t get a lot more precise than that. As for its destination…” She spread her fingers, zoomed in on the colony, and pointed at a particular building. “It went there.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “One hundred percent. The signal was very tightly focused, probably for security purposes.” She smiled proudly. “But we caught it anyway.”

  Terry patted the scientist on her shoulder. “Good work. Thanks for the information.”

  As he walked out of the lab, Ranger hopped up from where he’d been waiting and trotted at his side. Terry pressed a button on his collar.

  “Yup?” replied the on-duty security officer.

  “Jason, I need a lockdown of Dorm Block C. Everyone stays inside until we’ve had a chance to clear them.”

  “Oh, damn. Okay, but you realize that’s like three hundred miners. What do you want me to say?”

  “Don’t say anything, just lock it down. I’ll be there in a bit. And one more thing. Go through the surveillance tape for the last fifteen minutes. If anyone left the dorms during that time I want them held until they can be interviewed by me.”

  “Terry, we’re going to get a lot of flak for this. You sure?”

  “Just do it.”

  “You got it. I’m locking down the buildings… now.”

  Terry disconnected and jogged toward his transport. This could be the break he was looking for.

  Chapter Six

  The sun hadn’t risen yet when the mining students lined up on the tarmac at Cape Kennedy. Everyone fidgeted in the cool morning breeze, and the excitement was palpable.

  Being so close to the shuttle, Priya couldn’t help but admire the design of the transport ship. Its giant engines were a hybrid design that made the transport operate like a plane in the atmosphere, but in the vacuum of space, they could swivel to accelerate in any direction. By orienting the engines so they aimed “downward” in space, one could create the illusion of gravity for everyone aboard while the ship accelerated toward its destination.

  The first of the students gave his name to the transport officer, who checked him off his list and sent him toward the escalator that had been stationed next to the ship. Priya felt her heart thudding as the transport officer moved down the line. She was both excited for the new experiences she was going to have, and scared to death of the dangers that would be lurking around every corner. Because she wasn’t a miner; she was a spy. Her job was to dig into the loyalties of the miners and find terrorists. Get names.

  And evidently some of her mission wouldn’t be explained to her until after she got there. She had no idea how that would even happen.

  The transport officer stopped in front of her. “Name?”

  “Priya Radcliffe.”

  The woman looked at her tablet and frowned. “Radcliffe, you said?”

  Priya felt a trickle of sweat at the base of her neck. “Yes. Radcliffe, with an ‘R’.”

  The woman swiped at her tablet, scrolling through her list of names. “Are you sure you’re cleared for this travel session? I don’t have you on the list.”

  “Yes.” Priya dug out her pocket PC and showed the woman her student ID and her enrollment certificate for this session’s mining internship on Chrysalis.

  The officer motioned for Priya to step aside. “Okay, let’s get through everyone else first, then we’ll figure this out.”

  As the officer moved on to the next intern, Priya felt a combination of embarrassment and indignation. She pulled out her communicator, swiped for a number, and put the device to her ear.

  “Yes?”

  “Ted, I’m on the tarmac right now, and the transport officer says I’m not on their list. What are—”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  The line disconnected.

  Priya stared at her phone. “Okay then… I guess I’ll wait right here.”

  The sun had long since crested above the horizon, and still Priya stood on the tarmac. The ship should have already taken off by now, but because of her, it was still on the ground. The other interns were all comfortably aboard—and no doubt impatient to get moving.

  Agent Ted had appeared within minutes of her call, but the transport company had to call in the UN immigration service before anything could be done. Now the immigration officer had finally arrived, only to argue with Agent Ted about his request.

  “I’m sorry, but what you’re asking is highly unusual. Any changes to the manifest need preapproval from the colony.”

  Agent Ted flashed his badge—again. “I don’t care what your manifest says, Miss Radcliffe is approved for travel. This transport isn’t authorized to leave without her. Contact the UN Travel Authority and refresh your manifest.”

  Priya had dreaded this trip from the beginning. But after all she’d been through—the training, the shots, the TMS brain machine, and on top of it all, the most godawful dreams—she’d now be disappointed if it fell through. And yet it looked like that was what was going to happen. At the last minute, everything was unraveling.

  As the immigration officer talked to someone on a communicator, Agent Ted came over and handed her a billfold. “Here’s a copy of your approved visa just in case the folks on the colony end give you any grief.”

  “Are they even going to let me on?”

  Ted waved dismissively. “You’ll get on. We set this up at the last minute for your security. It’s why I was on campus—I knew you’d probably get some grief.”

  “My security?” A fresh wave of anxiety washed over her.

  Her discomfort must have been evident, because the creepy agent’s expression morphed into something that was almost… warm. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Only a handful of people know about this trip of yours. That’s on purpose. Trust me, we’ve taken every precaution we can. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

  The immigration officer returned his communicator to his belt and said something to the transport officer. The woman nodded then walked over to Priya.

  “Miss Radcliffe, you’re approved for boarding.” She pointed to the escalator. “Go ahead and board. I’ll call up to the crew so they’re made aware.”

  Agent Ted shook Priya’s hand. “Best of luck.”

  Priya felt a surreal moment as she walked the fifty yards to the escalator. In her mind’s eye, she saw flashes of a spaceport that she knew she’d never been in. A sign on the wall said “Welcome to Chrysalis”—and the smells were similar to those of the Bizarre Bazaar.

  As quickly as the vision appeared, it was gone.

  A flight attendant greeted her at the top of the escalator. “Welcome Miss Radcliffe. We’ll be taking off at any moment. Please take Seat 12B.”

  As Priya walked to her seat, several of the interns flashed her looks of annoyance. It was her fault they were still here on the tarmac rather than on their way to Chrysalis.

  She sat down and buckled her seatbelt.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to ISTS, the Interplanetary Shuttle Transport Service. My name is Diane, and Kevin and I will be attending to your needs today. Today’s transport is being piloted by Captain Igor Chernyshevsky and his first officer, Buck Sexton.

  “For those of you who have never been off-planet before, this trip will be an exciting experience—but not too exciting, if you know what I mean.”

  Some of the interns chuckled. Priya felt anything but mirthful.

  “We’ll be taking off on runway 3C, heading east over the Atlantic. Once we’re past the twenty-five-mile zone, we’ll angle up, and you’ll experience a peak G-force of about three times your body weight. It will take about twenty minutes to clear the Earth’s gravitational influence, then we’l
l throttle back and will maintain a one-G acceleration and deceleration through the remainder of our trip.

  “Chrysalis and Earth are currently close in their orbits, at a distance of only twenty-three million miles, and we should arrive at Chrysalis Spaceport in about thirty-six hours. For now, on behalf of the ISTS and the flight deck and crew, we ask you to buckle up and enjoy the ride.”

  Priya relaxed and rested her head against the seat. She could still see the image of the area welcoming her to Chrysalis. Now that she’d seen it once, she could bring it up at will, like a memory. The same thing had happened with other places she’d dreamt about after her session with Agent Ted’s machine. Was that how his machine worked? Drilling data into her subconscious that eventually pushed its way forward as a memory?

  She wondered how accurate these fake memories actually were. And as the transport began to move, she knew she would soon find out.

  Priya blinked the sleep out of her eyes. The voice of a man with a strong Russian accent was being broadcast through the cabin.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have hit the midway point in our travel to the Chrysalis mining colony, and we’re about to shift orientation.

  “For the last eighteen hours, we’ve been accelerating at a constant rate, and we’ve now hit our peak velocity of about 1.4 million miles per hour. That’s just over eighteen hundred times the speed of sound, or approximately point two percent of the speed of light. In that time, we’ve traveled across nearly thirteen million miles of space.

  “Now that we are at the midway point, we will reverse orientation, and our constant rate of acceleration will become a constant rate of deceleration. Once the maneuver is completed, you will notice no difference, but during the shift, you may feel a brief moment of weightlessness. For the comfort and safety of both the passengers and crew, we ask that you all stay seated.”